US President George W. Bush on Friday called Iran a "grave national security concern," but said he was seeking a diplomatic way to cap its nuclear goals.
A hard-line cleric said in Tehran earlier that Bush was using the nuclear issue to further his goal of overthrowing Iran.
At the UN, the five permanent members of the Security Council ended a meeting on how to persuade Iran to suspend uranium enrichment-related activities, but there was no sign they had agreed on a statement.
The Security Council has begun to tackle Iran's case after the UN nuclear watchdog sent the 15 members a report on Wednesday saying it could not verify that Iran's atomic activities were peaceful.
Bush said US concerns were the result of Iran's stated desire to destroy Israel and Washington's belief that Tehran wants to build nuclear bombs -- something the Iranians deny.
"You begin to see an issue of grave national security concern," Bush told a newspaper group.
"Therefore it's very important for the United States to continue to work with others to solve these issues diplomatically, deal with these threats today," he said.
"Bush talks of regime change or change of its behavior, which is the same. It means no Islamic regime," said senior cleric Ahmad Khatami in a sermon.
Meanwhile EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana spoke for the first time publicly of possible sanctions against Iran.
Asked if EU foreign ministers meeting in Salzburg, Austria, would discuss the issue, Solana told reporters: "No. We are talking about a gradual approach to give some room still for diplomacy."
Bush said he assumed the threat was related to the US need for imported energy resources. "For national security purposes we have got to become ... not addicted to oil," he added.
Meanwhile, the five veto-holding members of the UN Security Council considered proposals to pressure Iran to resolve questions about its nuclear program, including demands that it abandon uranium enrichment and stop construction on a reactor, diplomats said.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS